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j| (copyrighted) 

I CONDENSED HISTORY 

^ of the 

Mexican War 

and its glorious results 

/ 

By Hon. WILLIAM McKAY 

of the Palmetto Regiment in Mexico, also Reminiscences 
of the War by 

Colonel DANIEL E. HUNGERFORD, 

of Rome (Italy), Captain in the 2nd New York Regiment 
in the Mexican War, and latterly in command of the 
36th Regiment New York Volunteers in the War 
of the Rebellion, 

(Father of Mrs. John W. Mackay, of Nevada, now of London) 

and Colonel CHAS. J. MURPHY, 

of Brussels (Belgium) 

the well-known Corn Propagandist, and one of the only two 
officers who won the Congressional Medal of Honor (a distinction 
which ranks with the cross of the Legion of Honor of France, 
and the Victoria Cross of England) in the first general battle of 
the War, Bull Run, and the youngest survivor now living of 
the soldiers in the Mexican War. 

** ■' *- 

Compiled and Published 

by John E. COWAN, 122, West 93rd Street, New York 

PRICE : 25 CENTS 


FIRST FD1TION 25,000 






















ERRATA. 


Since the printing of this hook it has come to my 
knowledge that comrade James C. Carleton, secre¬ 
tary of the National Association of Mexican War 
Veterans of Bedford, Indiana, under-ranks me in 
age 14 days. He was born on the 17th of June, 
1832, while I saw the light first on the 3rd of June of 
the same year. This knocks the conceit out of me 
as to being the youngest veteran of the Mexican 
War, and I take my hat off to my dear young com¬ 
rade Carleton, late of the 5th Regiment Indiana 
Volunteers, Colonel Lane, and I am relegated to a 
back seat. 

I hope my dear comrade will live to see his 100th 
birthday, and that he may never die till I kill him, 
and when he is called away at the last tattoo, may 
every hair of his head be converted into an electric 
light to illumine his march to glory. 







COLONEL DANIEL E. HUNGERFORD 










(copyrighted) 

CONDENSED HISTORY 

of the 

Mexican War 

and its glorious results 

By Hon. WILLIAM McKAY 

of the Palmetto Regiment in Mexico, also Reminiscences 
of the War by 

Colonel DANIEL E. HUNGERFORD. 

of Rome (Italy), Captain in the 2nd New York Regiment 
in the Mexican War, and latterly in command of the 
36th Regiment New York Volunteers in the War 
of the Rebellion, 

(.Father of Mrs. John W. Mackay, of Nevada, now,of London) 

and Colonel CHAS. J. MURPHY, 

of Brussels (Belgium) 

the well-known Corn Propagandist, and one of the only two 
officers who won the Congressional Medal of Honor (a distinction 
which ranks with the cross of the Legion of Honor of France, 
and the Victoria Cross of England) in the first general battle of 
the War, Bull Run, and the youngest survivor now living of 
the soldiers in the Mexican War. 


'--— 

Compiled and Published” " ’ 1 •" * *• 

by John E. COWAN, 122, West Street, New YerK 

PRICE : 25 CENTS 


FIRST EDITION 25,000 
















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/■•n 









HISTORY OF the MEXICAN WAR 

by the Hon. WILLIAM McKAY 


Comrades and welcome Guests *. 

It has been the custom of veterans of the war with 
Mexico to celebrate the fall of the capital of that Republic 
before the prowess of American soldiers on the 14th day of 
September, 1847. 

Hence are assembled around this festive board in this 
magnificent Hotel Continental the few veterans of that war 
whose far-wandering footsteps have brought them to the 
“ elbow-touch ” once more on a foreign soil. We meet to¬ 
night in this splendid capital of France, yet with the radiant 
folds of our country’s flag above us, that flag honored of the 
nations : 


“ For grace and beauty and order draw 
Around that symbol of light and law.” 

In thus assembling, we commune in the sacrament of a 
common memory with our comrades across the seas, who on 
all their homestead hills are celebrating the same glorious 
event. With them we exult in the proud consciousness that 
by doing our duty as American soldiers in the days of oui* 
youth, we not only gave renewed lustre to the martial 
annals of our country, but through the triumph of our arms 
we added greatly to the sum of human happiness, by widen¬ 
ing the area of the world's civilization. 

The occasion permits me to glance but briefly at the 
events of that war which to some are still vivid memories, 


— 4 — 


while others must either glean them from the historic page 
or hear them recited by the men who then acted histoiy. 

That war had its origin in the invasion of the soil of the 
United States by the Army of Mexico. 

On January 10th, 1845, the Congress of the United States 
passed an Act providing for the annexation of Texas. 

The Act was ratified by the Congress of that Republic on 
July 4th, 1845, and Texas with its two hundred and sixty five 
thousand square miles of territory, an area greater than that 
of the German Empire or of Austria, thus became an integral 
part of the American Union. 

Texas had already maintained her independence for ten 
years against Mexico, the parent country. 

Those who have questioned the political morality of the act 
of annexation maj^ be fulty answered by reference to the fact 
that England, France and Spain had all formally recognized 
the independence of the Republic of Texas three years before 
her admission into our Union. Mexico resolved to nullify 
that act by force of arms. 

In view of her aggressive attitude, Major General Zachary 
Taylor, U. S. Army, was ordered to the Rio Grande, the 
Western boundary of Texas, with a force of about four 
thousand men, chiefly regulars, where he arrived July 20th, 
1845, establishing his headquarters at Corpus Christi, within 
four miles of the Mexican Army, then encamped ten 
thousand strong, under the command of General Ampudia, 
on the South side of that river. In January, 1846, General 
Taylor moved his command to a point opposite Matamoras, 
Mexico, and erected an earthwork which he termed Fort 
Brown. 

On the 24th of April, 1846, Captain Thornton, U. S. Army, 
while marching at the head of seventy men of the 2nd Dra¬ 
goons in Texas, fell into an ambuscade of Mexican regular 
troops, numbering between three and four hundred, and after 
a gallant resistance, during which he had sixteen of his 
command killed, and thirty-eight wounded, was obliged to 
surrender. Six days later the Mexican forces attacked Fort 
Brown, and were handsomely repulsed. On May 8th General 


Taylor with 2,300 men met and defeated the Mexican Army 
6,000 strong, under the command of Generals Ampudia and 
Arista, at Palo Alto. On the following day, the Mexican 
Army having received a reinforcement of 1,000 men, made 
a stand at Resaca de la Palma (Ravine of Palms) and was 
there again defeated by General Taylor, the Mexican loss 
being 975. and ours but 110 killed and wounded. 

It is a noteworthy fact that those battles were fought 
without a declaration of war on either side. Indeed no 
declaration of war was ever made by either of the two 
contending Republics. 

On May 13th, 1846, the Congress of the United States 
passed a resolution declaring that war existed between the 
United States and Mexico, and further resolved, that the war 
should be prosecuted, until we oblained “ indemnity for the 
past, and security for the future/’ 

In response to the call of the President (Jas. K. Polk) for 
thirty thousand volunteers, sixty-five thousand volunteered 
promptly. The quotas furnished by the respective States 
were as follows : 

Alabama 2,981, Maryland and district of Columbia 1,372, 
Arkansas 1,274, Florida 289, Missouri, 6,441, Georgia 1,987, 
North Carolina 895, Illinois 5,791, South Carolina 1,120. 
Indiana 4,329, Ohio 5,334, Iowa 229, New Jersey 420, 
Kentucky 4,094, New York 1,890, Louisiana 7,341, Pennsyl¬ 
vania 2,117, .Michigan 1,072, Tennessee 5 392, Massachusetts 
930, Texas 7,394, Mississippi 2,235, Wisconsin .146. 

To these must be added about seven thousand regulars of 
the United States Army, and one thousand marines, making 
an aggregate force of about seventy-three thousand rank and 
file, constituting that gallant army, charged wilh the duty 
in connection with our grand old historic navy of enforcing 
from Mexico “ indemnity for the past and security for the 
future.” 

That demand, history attests, they translated into action. 

The Republic of Mexico consisted of twenty-four states, 
with a population of about six millions. It had but twenty 


— 6 — 


years previously achieved its independence against the 
veteran army of Spain. 

It had a standing army of fifty thousand, and had called 
into the field an additional force, chiefly volunteers, of nearly 
two hundred thousand. 

Her soldiers were well armed and equipped, the muskets 
of her infantry all bearing the English Tower-stamp, and the 
cartridges being of the best British manufacture. Her troops 
were, in the main, magnificently uniformed, and we could 
say with literal truth that her “ Cohorts were gleaming with 
purple and gold.” Her coast defences were provided with 
good armaments, her principal sea-port, Vera-Cruz, being 
guarded by the Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, built of white 
coral rock, and mounting three hundred heavy guns. No 
country was better adapted by its topography for defensive 
warfare. 

Abounding with mountain ranges, and rocky hill-slopes, 
the true citadels of freedom, that commanded all practicable 
roads to the interior, while she had a formidable ally in the 
deadly climate of her coast, where the tropical sun, shining 7 
upon the ever-decaying masses of rank vegetation, breeds the 
fatal malaria which burns up the blood with fever, alter¬ 
nating with the icy “ norther ” that within an hour will 
often vary the temperature from summer’s heat to an almost 
Arctic cold. 

Three lines of operation against Mexico were now deter¬ 
mined on : 

1. General Taylor was to operate from Matamoras, along 
the line of the Rio-Grande. 

2. A column under General Kearny was to conquer the 
Mexican territories of New Mexico and California. 

3. A column under General Wool was to enter the 
Northern States of Mexico and conquer Chihuahua, and the 
adjacent country. 

In pursuance of this plan General Taylor advanced upon 
the Mexican Army, then in position at Monterey, on Sep¬ 
tember 5 th, 1846. 


His army numbered 6,600 of all arms, composed of 3,200 
regular troops of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th, infantry; 
4 companies of the 2nd Dragoons, and 5 batteries (30) guns 
of field artillery, and 3,400 volunteers, consisting of the first 
regiments from Kentucky, Mississipi, Ohio and Tennessee, 
two Texas regiments commanded by Brig. Gen. Henderson, 
including Jack Hay’s famous Texas Rangers, and one batta¬ 
lion from Maryland and the District of Columbia. 

The Mexican force consisted of 7.000 regulars and 3,500 
volunteers, with 84 pieces of artillery in strong works 
covering every approach to the city. Their principal works 
were designated as Forts Diabolo, Teneria, Soldado, Inde¬ 
pendence, the Bishop's Palace and the Citadel. 

Our army attacked in three divisions, commanded respec¬ 
tively by Generals Worth, Twiggs and Butler of Kentucky. 

The enemy made a desperate resistance. The firing was 
incessant from the windows and flat roofs of the dwellings, 
and from barricades in the streets when our troops had 
entered the city after carrying all the outer defences by 
assault. 

The attack began on September 20th, and ended on the 
morning of the 23rd, with the surrender of the enemy. Our 
loss was about 950 killed and wounded. 

Early in December, 1846, all of the regular infantry was 
withdrawn from General Taylor's army and ordered to 
report to Major-General Winfield Scott, the Commander-in- 
Chief, who had assumed command in person of the fourth 
great column of attack, whose objective point was the 
Capital of Mexico, and which was entitled, “The Army of 
Mexico." General Taylor's army was thus reduced to only 
4,500 men consisting altogether of volunteers, except three 
batteries of the regular army, and two squadrons of the 
2nd Dragoons. Its numerical weakness invited attack, and 
General Santa Anna, the most renowned and skilful of the 
Mexican Commanders, and President of the* Republic of 
Mexico, who had won a decisive victory over the French 
Army of invasion nine years before, moved his army against 
it. That army, according to the Mexican official reports, 


- 8 — 


numbered twenty-three thousand, two-thirds regular soldiers. 

General Taylor decided to accept, battle, and selected a 
position admirably adapted for defence at the Rancho Buena 
Vista. The position was marked by narrow defiles, and 
rugged and high ridges, that commanded the valley below. 
The battle began at daylight on February 23rd, 1846, by the 
attack of the enemy in force on our left flank. It was 
gallantly repulsed by the fire of the second and 3rd Indiana 
Riflemen, and a company of Col. Yell’s dismounted Arkansas 
Cavalry, with Bragg’s and Shermann’s splendidly served 
batteries, diverged to our left, where the enemy was concen¬ 
trating for a decisive attack. The extreme left of our line 
was posted on a high and broad plateau and was composed 
of the 2nd Indiana, and 2nd Illinois regiments of infantry. 

The tremendous impact of that attack forced those regiments 
to retire in considerable disorder after they had sustained for 
some time a severe cross-fire of artillery, and a heavy fire on 
their front, by a greatly superior force of infantry. At that 
crisis of the battle the 1st Mississipi Rifles, the only regiment 
of that army that was armed with rifles having percussion 
locks, commanded by Colonel Jefferson Davis, promptly 
interposed between the retreating regiments, and the charging 
Mexican cavalry, and doubtless saved the day by their rapid 
and effective firing, before which the enemy recoiled. There 
are veterans of Buena Vista, who, though in after years they 
still remained true to the flag of their country, and struck in 
its just defence on fields “shot-sown and bladed thick with 
steel,” do not feel that they sully their loyalty in respectfully 
saluting Jefferson Davis, as he teas, recalling him to memory 
as with tall heroic form he so gallantly upheld the starry 
ensign of the Union upon the steady and blazing line that 
sheltered the brave but broken columns of Illinois and Indi¬ 
ana, from the uplifted sabres of a merciless foe. 

The art of dying at the right time is the art preservative of 
great reputations. 

The Mississipi Rifles were soon bravely supported by the 
1st Illinois, 2nd Indiana, and 2nd Kentucky regiments with 
section (2 pieces) of Bragg’s famous battery, and the ground 


- 9 — 


lost on our left flank was in great part recovered. At the 
base of the ridge the left flank of the enemy was held in check 
by Indiana and Arkansas infantry, and the destructive fire 
of our artillery. 

At that moment, when his army had met with a disastrous 
and demoralizing repulse, General Santa Anna sent forward 
a flag of truce and our fire was suspended. The bearer of 
the flag, to the amazement of General Taylor, presented a 
demand for the surrender of his army. 

This expedient cannot be too strongly commended in the 
art of war, although writers upon grand strategy have 
strangely overlooked it. It is not suggested even by General 
Jomini, in his exhaustive work “Traite des grandes Opera¬ 
tions Militaires.” 

It may, however, he thus formulated : When your attack¬ 
ing columns are shattered and repulsed, hurry up a flag of 
truce, and check the advance of your exultant enemy, and 
demand his surrender, and then, before he can recover from 
his astonishment at your sublime impudence reform your 
shattered lines and advance to further vantage ground, or 
retire in good order, under the shelter of the peaceful symbol. 

Santa Anna’s messenger returned with General Taylor’s 
laconic answer, “I decline acceding to your demand,” and 
the Mexicans again advanced to the attack, bringing into 
action all their reserves, and were again repulsed with heavy 
loss, after a terrible struggle. 

The battle of twelve sanguinary hours on that mountain 
plateau had ended, and “our flag was still there.” 

General Santa Anna retired rapidly with his army, only 
pausing in the vicinity long enough to send off a bulletin to 
the Capital announcing that he had “won a decisive victory 
over the barbarians of the North.” Thus ended in a blaze of 
glory the battle-record of the “army of occupation,’' under 
General Taylor. 

In the meantime, the Army of the West, under the com¬ 
mand of General Stephen W. Kearney, had been reaping a 
rich harvest of laurels. 


— 10 — 


By a rapid march from Fori Leavenworth, Kansas, to 
Santa Fe, a distance of 750 miles in thirty days, he secured 
possession of New Mexico. 

Dividing his force (2,500) at Santa Fe, General Kearney 
with 1,500 Dragoons marched to California, and defeated 
the enemy in a warm engagement at San Pasqual. He then 
formed a junction with the California rifle battalion, and a 
force of 750 sailors and marines from the naval squadron, 
under the command of Commodore Stockton, who had just 
succeeded the gallant Commodore Sloat, who had previously 
taken the California port of Monterey. Prior to the arrival 
of General Kearney, however, that brilliant soldier, and 
untiring and sagacious explorer, John C. Fremont, had 
hoisted the American standard in California. He was there 
under orders to ascertain and lay out a new route to Oregon 
further South than that travelled by our emigrants. 

The Mexican Governor of California having in May, 1846, 
ordered all American settlers to leave that province, and 
having raised a force to expel them, Colonel Fremont 
recruited a body of 400 men and defeated the Mexicans in 
several sharp engagements in the valley of the Sacramento, 
before he had even heard that war existed between the 
United States and Mexico. Under his able and enterprising 
leadership the Americans in California, united with many of 
the natives, declared the independence of the province of 
California on the 4th of July, 1845. 

It has since transpired that but for this timely action on 
the part of Col. Fremont and the resolute Americans asso¬ 
ciated with him, a large force would have been landed from 
the British fleet in that vicinity, and California would have 
been taken possession of by England, under an arrangement 
with its Mexican Governor. 

It had been taken possession of by Admiral Drake for 
England in the year 1579, under the name of “ New Albion,” 
and the vague British claim was to be revived in the interest 
of English capitalists who held the bonds of Mexico to the 
amount of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars. 

A few months after these stirring and important events on 


— 11 — 


the Pacific slope, Col. A. W. Doniphan began his famous 
march from Santa Fe to Saltillo. 

He started on November 13th, 1846, with a force consisting 
of nine hundred Missouri cavalry and two batteries of 
Missouri artillery. A part of his command 500 strong was 
attacked on Christmas Day at Brazito by a force of 1,000 
Mexicans, which they defeated in twenty minutes. They 
again defeated the enemy on February 28th, 1847, at Sacra¬ 
mento, near the city of Chihuahua, and entered that 
important city triumphantly. On the next day Doniphan 
began his march through the Northern States of Mexico, 
back to Saltillo. He accomplished this renowned march, 
winning victories as he went, in forty days, a distance of 
1,500 miles. This dims the lustre of the retreat of the ten 
thousand Greeks from the field of Cunaxa, as graphically 
described by Xenophon, their commander and historian. 

While these events were in progress, Col. Sterling Price, 
of Missouri, who had been left by Doniphan at Santa Fe, 
with a force of about 500 men, had been, as he always was, 
active and successful. 

On January 19th, 1847, Governor Charlet Bent, with 
thirty-five other Americans were massacred at Taos, New 
Mexico, in cold blood by a Mexican force of about two 
thousand cavalry, which soon after appeared in the vicinity 
of Santa Fe. Price attacked and defeated them, after a 
desperate conflict, at Canada, about 18 miles north of Santa 
Fe. He pursued them on their retreat, and two days later 
inflicted severe loss upon them at Embedo, and finally on 
February 4th he utterly routed them at Taos, the scene of 
their recent savage atrocity. 

The scene now opens on a broader field of action. 

On the 9th of March, 1847, the Army of Mexico, under the 
command of Major-General Winfield Scott, that most regal of 
American soldiers, never to be named by us, comrades, but 
with uplifted hat, began its victorious march for the Halls 
of the Montezumas.” General Scott on that day effected the 
landing of his army at Sacrificios, an island seven miles west 
of Vera Cruz. The landing was made in seventy-five surf 


— 12 — 


boats, each carrying seventy-five men, under cover of our 
fleet, commanded by Commodore Conner, wilh those able 
and dashing officers Commodores Perry and Tat nail com¬ 
manding squadrons of the fleet. The army there numbered 
13,200 rank and file. General Scott established his lines 
on the north and east fronts of Vera Cruz on the same day. 
Within ten days he had planted five large siege batteries 
built of sand bags about 1,000 yards from the walls of the 
city. One of them was mounted with 8-inch ship guns, 
and manned by sailors from the fleet. 

A demand for the surrender of the city having been made 
and refused, our guns opened fire on March 22nd, and for 
three days and nights rained upon it the red ruin of avenging 
war. On the morning of the 25th, General Landero, com¬ 
manding the garrison of the city and the Castle of San Juan 
d'Ulloa, sent in a flag of truce with overtures of surrender. 
He at first proposed to surrender the city alone. General 
Scott refused this, as the castle distant but a mile to the South 
East of the city, completely commanded it, and he therefore 
demanded its surrender also. 

This demand was finally acceded to and the surrender of 
the Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, and the City of Vera Cruz, 
with their garrisons 8,000 strong was formally made on 
March 29, 1847. Our loss was but sixteen killed and 
wounded. 

On April 8th our army took up its line of march along 
the national road for the Capital of Mexico distant 290 miles. 
On April 14th it confronted the Army of Santa Anna, 20,000 
strong posted on the heights of Cerro Gordo. The mountain 
ridges on which he had taken position, had been well 
fortified by that indomitable but cruel and faithless Mexican 
general, and fully commanded our route to the Capital. At 
the instance, and under the direction of that most excellent 
soldier Captain Robert E. Lee, of the Corps of Engineers, a 
road was cut through the dense forest on the enemy’s left, 
so as to enable us to take his position in reverse. This work 
occupied three days during which our working parties were 
frequently attacked. 


— 13 — 


On the morning of the 18th of April, at dawn, we attacked 
in force. 

The command of our column of attack on the enemy’s left 
was the post of honor, for it was the strongest point of his 
position, as it covered his only line of retreat. That com¬ 
mand was assigned to Brigadier General James Shields, one 
of that warlike Irish race who have ever keenly felt the 
rapture of the fight wherever battle was to be done for a 
noble cause—a most knightly and heroic soldier, who would 
have worn with stainless honor the white plume of Henry 
of Navarre on the field of Ivry, and have worthily led the 
immortal Irish Brigade along the path of glory that it trod 
at Fontenoy. 

Our troops dashed up the mountain side with unquailing 
intrepidity, the First Regiment of New York, volunteers of 
Shield’s brigade under the command of that most gallant 
soldier Colonel Ward B. Burnett, bravely leading on our 
extreme right. The rocky ridge was soon ablaze with the 
fire of musketry and artillery. 

In three hours the Mexican Army was routed. The battle 
was done, and far up on the crest of the mountain range 
where the eagle dwells alone, the white stars of our coun¬ 
try’s banner shone serenely on their blue field. Our loss 
was 97 killed and 408 wounded, and that of the enemy about 
1,400 in killed and wounded, and 2,750 prisoners, among 
whom were officers and men of the recently surrendered 
garrison of Yera Cruz, who were serving against us in 
violation of their paroles. 

Harney's Dragoons pursued the enemy hotly, and sabred 
their scattered columns for fifteen miles along the road to 
Jalapa. 

At that, city the army of Scott was reduced to about 6,500 
by the muster out of the greater part of his volunteer forces, 
as they had enlisted for only one year; and their term of 
service had expired. Leaving Jalapa on the 22nd of April 
we entered Perote and its strong castle, a full bastion work 
of 80 guns, on the evening of the 23rd, the enemy having 
evacuated it on approach. Halting here to rest for about 


— 14 — 


two weeks we marched for Puebla, 70 miles distant, the 
chief manufacturing city in Mexico with a population of 
65,000. 

We occupied Puebla on May 15th, after a desultory fire 
from the enemy in its streets. 

Here General Scott was obliged to await, for nearly three 
months, the arrival of reinforcements. Every day’s delay 
increased our hazard, as the enemy was fortifying, along all 
the approaches to the capital. 

The time was not wholly lost, however, for General Scott 
there brought the drill of his volunteer regiments to the 
highest state of perfection, so that they marched and man¬ 
oeuvred with all the precision of trained regulars. 

At length the long-expected reinforcements arrived, and 
on the morning of August 7th, 1847, our Army moved out of 
Puebla on its march for the city of Mexico, all our bands 
playing the Star Spangled Banner. 

It numbered then about 10,000 men, consisting of four 
divisions. 

The cavalry was commanded by that redoubtable soldier, 
the Murat of the Army, Brt. Brig. Genl. Wm. S. Harney, 
and consisted of detachments of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, Dra¬ 
goons, to the number of about seven hundred and fifty. 

After a toilsome march of about seventy miles, across 
mountain spurs and along a very rugged road, the army, on 
the afternoon of August 17th, 1847, looked down for the first 
time on the valley of Mexico, and saw from afar its magnifi¬ 
cent capital, with the golden crosses of its churches glittering 
in the red light of the setting sun. There lay before us the 
same broad lake, mirroring the same snow-crowned moun¬ 
tains in its glassy bosom, on which Cortez with his steel-clad 
warriors had gazed, in the same month, three hundred and 
twenty six years before. On reaching a point about nine 
miles from the -city, General Scott ascertained by a recon¬ 
naissance that the Mexicans had fortified El Penon, a 
mountain that commanded the approach to the capital by the 
National road. He therefore ordered a counter march with 
the view to turn the lake (Chaleo) on the south. This required 


— 15 — 


a march of twenty five miles, which was rapidly made, and 
on the 18th, the army was concentrated at a point about ten 
miles from the city at Contreras, a strong posilion held by 
General Valencia, with field-works mounting twenty-four 
guns. These, General Scott determined to take in reverse, 
and we therefore made a night march of eight miles over the 
pedregal or lava fields, a route deemed by the Mexicans 
impraticable for any army. The assault was made on the 
rear and flanks of the surprised enemy soon after daylight- 
on August 20th, by Riley’s Cadivalders and Shield’s Brigades, 
all under the command of General P. F. Smith, whom 
General Shields, although ranking above him, magnani¬ 
mously allowed to retain the command that he might carry 
out dispositions made prior to the arrival of Shields on the 
ground. 

The whole line of works was stormed, and the battle won 
in eighteen minutes. 

The enemy broke at the first assault, and fled in the direc¬ 
tion of the city, and nearly five hundred of them were 
captured by the New York Volunteers and the Palmetto 
regiment, that were posted to cut off their retreat. At this 
battle two guns of the 4th Artillery, that were lost without 
dishonor at Buena Vista, were recaptured from the enemy. 

The army, after resting a few hours at St. Augustine, a 
town about four miles from Contreras, marched against 
the main body of the enemy, distant six miles from the 
former point. 

We were soon in the presence of the Mexican Army, thirty 
thousand strong, commanded by Santa Anna, and composed 
of the best troops of Mexico, including several thousand 
volunteers. It occupied a vast intrenched camp near the 
village and convent of Cherubusco, about seven miles from 
the capital. 

While marching to this field we heard a number of heavy 
explosions which we soon learned were due to the blowing 
up of the bridges along all our possible lines of retreat back 
to the coast. 

That meant, as every soldier well knew, a declaration by 



— 16 — 


our Mexican foe of '‘War lo the knife, and the knife to 
the hilt.” 

General Scott halted the army on a lofty plateau overlook¬ 
ing the valley where stretched the serried lines ot the enemy 
and where 

The sheen of the spears was like stars on the sea, 

When the blue waves roll nightly on deep Galilee.” 

He there briefly addressed the several commands, and 
expressed his firm conviction, that each man would do his 
duty as an American soldier, and thus assure victory to 
our arms. 

That word “ Duty,” a code of honor in itself, unknown in 
its full import, to every language but our own, has ever in¬ 
spired the loftiest achievements of the English speaking race. 

The battle opened at noon, by the attack of the Division of 
General Worth (the Marshal Ney of the Army) on the enemy's 
left flank, and soon became general. 

The degree of resistance that we encountered, is indicated 
by the following extract from the report of Brig. Genl. 
Shields as to the operations of his own brigade, and it is 
doubtless applicable to every command on that field : “ My 
brigade composed of the 1st New York regiment of Volun¬ 
teers, and the Palmetto (S. G.) regiment, advanced steadily 
against the right flank of the enemy under as terrible a fire 
as any that soldiers ever faced.” 

At sundown the battle ended with the defeat of the Mexican 
army which retreated in great disorder toward the city. 

The Dragoons, under Harney, followed the flying enemy 
fast and far, and Major Phil. Kearney, not hearing the recall 
sounded, or rather not heeding it, pursued them to the walls 
of the city, sabreing the gunners at its very gate, where he 
lost his right arm, and returned wounded behind one of his 
soldiers. Our loss was 1,045 killed and wounded, while that 
of the enemy was estimated at 7,000 in killed, wounded, and 
prisoners. 

We captured 5,000 prisoners and 86 pieces of artillery. 


— 17 — 


Among the many deeds of heroism done at Churubusco, I 
must note one of the most daring that has passed into history. 
In our charge upon the field-work known as the tete-dupont, 
we found our way blocked by a burning Mexican ammuni¬ 
tion wagon, that threatened a destructive explosion. At this 
juncture Sergeant Alexander M.Keneday of the 3rd Dragoons, 
attached to Worth’s escort, sprang into the wagon, and 
calling three of his comrades to his aid, with the sparks 
flying around him threw the packages of gunpowder into the 
river below, thus saving many lives and enabling our 
charging columns to advance. Sergeant Keneday is now the 
honored Secretary of our National Association. 

On the same evening a flag of truce arrived from Santa 
Anna who proposed an armistice of twenty days, stating that 
he desired to negociate terms of peace. General Scott 
assented, and having but three days’ rations in his commis¬ 
sariat, imposed as one of the conditions, that he should be 
allowed to send a train with a proper escort into the city, 
and there purchase supplies for his army. This was accord¬ 
ingly done. On Sept. 6th. Gen. Scott declared the armistice 
at an end, having discovered that the wily Santa Anna, in 
violation of its solemn terms, was engaged in fortifying his 
position and reinforcing his army. 

At dawn on Sept. 8th we again advanced. Santa Anna with 
his army occupied Molino del Rey or the King’s Mill, a 
series of massive stone buildings surrounded by high walls, 
about one mile and a half west of the castle of Ghapultepec 
and three miles from the city of Mexico. His force consisted 
often thousand men and twenty four pieces of artillery. 

Our attacking colums numbered 3,600 with Drum’s, 
Huger’s, and Duncan’s batteries, and a company of Volti- 
geurs, under the immediate command of General Worth, all 
regulars. 

We attacked in three columns, and our first attack being 
repulsed, the Mexicans sallied from their works, and lanced 
our wounded officers and men, and cut their throats within 
full view of our army. 

Worth rapidly reinforcing with Cadwallader's Brigade, 


- 18 — 


and Stewart’s rifles, that had been left to support Huger’s 
Battery, and Duncan's heavy Battery of 24-pounders, attacked 
the enemy’s right and centre, and having taken the Casa 
Mata, a strong stone citadel, the enemy abandoned all his 
other positions, and the day was won. In proportion to the 
force engaged, this was, for us, the most bloody battle of the 
war. We had 953 killed and wounded, among them seventy 
five officers. The loss of the enemy was 1200 killed and 
wounded, and 850 prisoners. 

The desperate nature of the conflict may be indicated by the 
tact that towards its close, the guns of Drum’s and Huger’s 
batteries were served almost entirely by officers—graduates 
of West Point, nearly every enlisted artillery man having 
fallen at his post. 

The victory was important as Molina del Rey was the 
chief cannon foundry of Mexico and its guns commanded 
some of the approaches to the Castle of Chapultepec. 

That castle was a strong fortress of rock and masonry, 
mounting 26 guns, and garrisoned by 2,500 regular troops 
and 300 cadets under the command of General Bravo. It 
was the National Military Academy of Mexico. It was 
situated about one mile and a half from the capital, on the 
crest of a steep rocky height, which rose 189 feet above the 
road which entered the city at the Belen gate. About mid- 
wa y up the ascent was a strong redoubt on the south front, 
and just below that, a heavy stone wall, with a banquette, 
which ran along nearly the entire front, and was well 
manned with Mexican regulars. Our batteries opened fire 
on the castle at the distance of about 700 yards, on the 
morning of September 12th, and at night fall had made 
several breaches in its walls. 

Soon after midnight our forces silently occupied the ditch 
that nearly encircled the foot ot the hill, and which was 
bordered with a profuse growth of the Maguay plant or 
American aloe, which served to screen us from the view of 
the enemy. At day-dawn on the 13th our men stepped from 
the ditch, and being quickly aligned under the fire of the 
enemy, advanced to the assault. The entire army was 


- 19 — 


brought into action, except three regiments of Worth's divi¬ 
sion held in reserve at Molino del Rey. In a whirlwind of 
fire from cannon and musketry, that swept down the hill, 
which was everywhere ablaze with the flashing guns, our 
men pressed upward, and.onward, our artillery, in the road 
below, firing shot and shell over their heads as they advanced. 

Another desperate rush, and their bayonets sparkled at 
every breach, and soon the flag of the First New York 
volunteers, the first to crown the castle, floated out above the 
battlements with its inspiring motto '‘Excelsior," and pro¬ 
claimed that Ghapultepec was ours! 

The presence here to-night of one of the gallant survivors 
of that heroic regiment, Colonel Daniel E. Hungerford who 
is on my left, and Colonel Charles J. Murphy who is on my 
right, a soldier of another regiment, leads me to recall two 
incidents of that battle, one of which moves me deeply with 
a sense of personal gratitude and bereavement. 

The Colonel of that Regiment, Ward B. Burnett, who 
proved himself worthy to lead it, was severely wounded at 
Cherutusco, and the command devolved upon its Lieutenant- 
Colonel Baxter, who was killed while most gallantly leading 
it at Chapultepec. Its brave Major Burnham then assumed 
command, but was soon temporarily disabled by a glancing 
shot or a flying fragment of rock. 

At that critical moment, when the Regiment was nearing 
the breaches under a galling fire, Captain Daniel E. Hunger- 
ford, then but in his twenty-fifth year, though not entitled to 
command it, sprang to the front and cheered the regiment 
forward with his voice and waving sword. 

As to the incident which touches me personally. I recall 
the forlorn hope of my regiment composed of thirty men 
under the command of Lieutenant Ralph Bell, third Lieute¬ 
nant of my company and the youngest officer of the Palmetto 
Regiment , being only in his twenty-first year. Those who 
knew him well remember his tall, lithe but soldierly figure, 
his light hair and gentle blue eyes, and his face almost 
feminine in its delicate beauty. 


- 20 


Most vividly does he come back to my memory, as he 
sprang forward leading that forlorn hope, as cheerily as if he 
were going to meet his bride, and with the blood trickling 
from a wound upon his right cheek, pointing upward to the 
castle with the hilt of his sword, its blade having been 
shivered by a grape shot. But only two years later, he 
passed away among strangers in (California) far distant 
from his home, and his eyes closed in a strange land in 
death by the brotherly ministrations of his old comrade-in- 
arms Colonel Charles J. Murphy, who was himself a gallant 
actor on that field, though but a youth of seventeen years. 
Well indeed has the poet written, 

“ The bravest are the tenderest. 

The loving are the daring.” 

But to continue my cursory narrative of events that would 
require a volume to detail them fully. 

Worth’s division pressed the enemy closely on his line of 
retreat to the eastern or San Cosmo gate of the city. General 
Scott decided to make his main attack at that gate, deeming 
it the most vulnerable point. With that view he ordered 
General Quitman with his division, to make a feint, and 
occupy the attention of the enemy at the Garita de Belen on 
the west. 

Quitman’s command moved rapidly along the causeway 
leading to the city near the margin of the lake, carrying 
several batteries of the enemy, he having determined to 
convert the intended feint into a real attack and win a 
victory in violation of orders. 

Far to the front the New York volunteers, [he Palmetto 
Regiment , and Captain James Stewart’s company of regular 
Rifles sprang from arch to arch of the great stone aqueduct, 
firing with rapidity as they advanced. 

Drum’s battery galloped rapidly to the front, and opened 
an effective fire, which was at once replied to by the enemy, 
with at least twenty heavy guns. In a few minutes nearly 
every officer and man of the battery was killed or wounded. 
Its chivalric commander lay in the road with both thighs 


— 21 


shattered by a cannon ball, but true to the line of his duty, 
living and dying, he called out to the Infantry in the arches, 
“For God’s sake save my guns! ” They quickly responded, 
and met the advancing foe with the bayonet, driving them 
hack, and following them into their works, and the last 
sounds that reached the ears of the noble captain Simon 
Drum, were the victorious shouts of his comrades at the gate. 

The magnificent Infantry of P. F. Smith’s and Pierce’s 
Brigades, were also at this time delivering a destructive fire 
at the enemy on our flanks. 

The Mexican troops were soon driven from all their 
positions near the gate, and at twenty minutes past one 
o’clock on the afternoop of Seplember 13th 1847, the 
Palmetto flag of South Carolina was planted on the wall of 
the City of Mexico,—the first foreign ensign that had waved 
over that spot since Fernando Cortez had there unfurled the 
royal standard of Spain on August 13th, 1521. 

Our further advance that day was checked by the fire of 
the citadel, a work with ten guns, about 600 yards from the 
Belen gate. 

About six in the afternoon its commander, General Flores, 
offered to surrender, on the novel condition that General 
Quitman should give him a receipt for all his ordinance, 
quartermaster and commissionarj^ stores. 

He was informed that receipts on such occasions were 
written with the sword, hut his demand was acceded to, and 
the citadel surrendered the next morning, September 14th, 
at sunrise. 

The main body of the army under General Worth drove 
the enemy from every position at the San Cosmo gate, and 
on the night of the 13th bivouacked within the walls of the 
city. 

At noon on September 14th the entire army was united in 
the Plaza Mayor, or great square of the city of Mexico, the 
site of the ancient Tenochtitlan of the Aztec empire, nearly 
eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. 

The stars and stripes were soon unfurled above the Palace 


— 22 - 


of the Cortes, (Congress), and six thousand five hundred 
American soldiers stood triumphant in the capital of Mexico, 
with its hostile population numbering one hundred and fifty 
thousand souls. 

The subsequent operations of our army, though brilliant, 
were but of a minor character. Early in October, Santa Anna 
laid siege to our garrison at Puebla which consisted of the 
First Pennsylvania regiment of volunteers, under colonel 
Childs. He summoned the garrison to surrender, stating, 
with his usual mendacity, that he had routed the army of 
General Scott. Col. Childs occupying Fort Loretto, in the 
western suburb of Puebla, repelled four desperate assaults of 
the enemy, 5,000 strong, and Santa Anna drew off his forces 
on the approach of General Joseph Lane who was advancing 
from the coast, with needed reinforcements for Scott’s army. 
The last engagement of the war was fought by Brig. General 
Sterling Price at Rosales, New Mexico, on March 15th 1848. 
He there, with but 300 Missouri Volunteers, defeated a Mexi¬ 
can force of 1000, capturing their commanding General, and 
eleven pieces of artillery. 

The war ended by a treaty of peace, concluded at the 
Hacienda of Guadeloupe Hidalgo on February 2nd, 1848. 
Peace was formally announced in a proclamation by the 
President of the United States, on July 4th, 1$8. 

In this necessarily imperfect sketch of the salient events of 
the Mexican war, I have had to omit even the name of many 
an unforgotten hero. 

It was no holiday war. It was replete with toilsome 
marches, with blistered and bleeding feet, through hot sands, 
under a tropical sun, and over jagged rocks, and snowy 
mountain ranges where horses and riders perished with cold. 
It abounded with nameless tragedies, both on bloody fields 
near many a battery’s smoking guns, and in the deep gloom 
of fever stricken hospitals. In that memorable war of two 
years, we fought seventy battles and engagements without 
the final loss of a single gun or American ensign. 

Engaged always against heavy odds, we bore the honor of 
our great republic triumphantly, on our ever advancing 
swords and bayonets. 


— 23 — 


Blended with this patriotic reflection, we proudly recall 
the fact that we marched nearly three thousand miles 
through the country of an enemy, alien to us in race and 
language, and performed no act to wound the modesty of 
woman, or to sully the sanctity of her person. 

The flames of no defenceless homestead lighted up our line 
of march, and no matin hymn or vesper bell was silenced by 
our coming. We were always merciful in the hour of 
victory, and our army, while vindicating the prowess of our 
country, also illustrated its civilisation. What have been 
the material results of that victorious w r ar ? It acquired for 
us the vast territories of California, Nevada, Colorado, New 
Mexico, Idaho, Arizona, and Utah, thus adding one million 
square miles or 640,000,000 of acres to the United States, 
nearly doubling its area. 

According to authoritative statistics, there have been taken 
from the mines and rivers of the region thus acquired since 
1848, gold and silver of the value of three thousand millions 
of dollars. Averaging the soldier at 140 pounds, this 
amount is sufficient to award to every soldier engaged in the 
battles of Mexico, were even all now living, his weight in 
pure gold. 

But the enterprising men, who developed that imperial 
domain that had so long lain stagnant under a semi-barbaric 
rule, were more than mere delvers in mines, and gold- 
washers in river-sands. They were the builders of empire, 
the raw material, the muscle and the mind of great civilised 
States, whose industrial products have even exceeded in 
value during the past thirty five years, all the precious 
metals that ha^ve been taken from their rocks and streams. 

Time, with its wide arch of forty years, has spanned 
many memorable events in our country, since we bore its 
flag in triumph over the smoking guns of hostile batteries on 
fields afar. 

Within thirteen years after we had entered victoriously 
the capital of Mexico, the capital of the United States was 
itself menaced by a hostile army. 

Through four years of internecine war the republic, 
founded by Washington, battled for its existence against 


- 24 — 


armed legions that challenged its rightful supremacy within 
the State where Washington was horn. 

That war embraced within i(s theatre of operations more 
than 2,700,000 men, and was signalized by more than one 
thousand battles and engagements. Soon after its termina¬ 
tion, every American State, through its duly elected repre¬ 
sentatives, answered to the roll call beneath the dome of the 
Nation’s Capitol. 

The magnanimous victors in that mighty war deserved 
victory, and they neither abridged the rights, nor wounded 
the self-respect of the vanquished. 

Hence, to-day, all American citizens dwell together in 
loyal unity beneath the benign rule of our indestructible 
Union. And I can attest, as a Southerner, through five 
generations “native and to the manor born," that if my 
comrades in arms of the Confederate army ever dream of 
future wars, it is with the sincere hope, that they may aid 
in bearing the flag of the Union among a people who have 
never looked upon its starry folds, and into lands that have 
never felt the power of its eagle’s beak. 

TOASTS. 

“ The day we celebrate.” Responded to by Judge McKay 
of South Carolina. 

“.The President of the United States.” 

This toast was received with great applause and drank 
standing. 

Colonel Murphy in reply to the toast said : 

Mr. Chairman and comrades of the Mexican war, 
and Gentlemen. — I feel highly honoured, at being called 
on to respond to this patriotic toast, in the presence of this 
important and representative assemblage, gathered here to¬ 
night, to unite in common with our countrymen at home, in 
celebrating this anniversary. 

It is significant of the ardent patriotism of our people, 
that however varied may be the character of our meetings, 
this toast to the President of the United States is always 
drunk with enthusiasm and unanimity. And you will, I am 
sure, agree with me, that the able and high-minded gentle- 


man, who now presides over the destinies of the Republic, 
is a worthy successor to those who have gone before him 
in his exalted office It is a matter of patriotic pride to us 
all that the pages of history have never yet been sullied by 
the the misdeeds of an American President, and the repre¬ 
sentatives for the highest office in the gift of a free people 
have always been honored at home and respected and 
admired abroad. 

We can justly claim that our Presidents form an unbroken 
line of wise and capable rulers, that leave indelible marks 
for good on the progress of civilization in the path of liberty, 
justice, and freedom. As for the present occupant of the 
White House, none can gainsay his devotion to duty, his 
ability and character, and his conscientious endeavour to 
serve faithfully the interest ot our common country at home 
and abroad. Whoever our chief magistrate may be, we 
may.be as Americans, sure that the national honor is always 
secure, and that, our flag, the glorious “ Stars and Stripes” 
will aways be among the foremost standards among the 
nations of the earth. It can be truly said that our President 
is at the head of a happy family. Differences may divide us 
on election day, but at all times, love and reverence for our 
institutions, and liberties animate us, the fires of patriotism, 
obliterating the petty distinctions of politics, burn as 
brightly to-night in the North, South, East and West, of a 
united and prosperous country, as well as in the breasts of 
those around this board this evening. The public utterances 
of the President mark him as a statesman, who appreciates 
to the full the grandeur of our country, and the greatness of 
our people. In visiting through the several states last sum¬ 
mer, the brave men of the South vied with the men of the 
North, in giving him an enthusiastic welcome, and proving 
to the world that, when the occasion calls for it, the spirit of 
loyalty and patriotism, and naught else, will be found in 
every American heart. 

It is a pleasing spectacle to us, and a source of surprise 
and admiration to foreigners, that our President comes and 
goes, as an ordinary citizen; respect for his office and person 
being as general among our 75 million inhabitants that we 


— 26 - 


need not even the slightest display of force to with-hold his 
authority or strengthen his public acts. This is indeed an 
impressive fact, perhaps unparalled in the history of any 
country, and a tribute to the stability ot our institutions, 
supported by the people's will and dominated by a spirit of 
justice and intellectual power. We have weathered a 
terrible storm, but the timbers of the ship of State have stood 
the strain. Our past has been glorious, and if we are true 
to our trust, we may look forward with optimism and faith 
to the future of our country, now the light of the world, and 
a beacon of hope to the oppressed of every land. 

This elbow touch of cordiality and enjoyment with fellow- 
Americans on foreign soil is a most happy occasion for us 
all, but the grandest sight in this hall is our American flag, 
that symbol of beauty and glory, the red, white and blue, 
which recalls to our minds so much that is dear to our 
hearts, home, friends and native land. 

I know I express as the feelings of all when I say we are 
better Americans for having travelled abroad. American 
citizenship is a title the proudest might envy, and it confers 
a distinction of inestimable value on its possessor. Let us 
assimilate all we can of the art and learning of the world, we 
freely draw from the treasures of her historic past, but let us 
always cherish and strengthen those grand principles of 
liberty, which the Fathers of the Republic fought for, and 
for the successful working of which we pledge ourselves. 

May we all take part in many more festivities, and may 
our children’s children gather in like similar joyous meeting, 
to celebrate the anniversary of this day, for the blessings 
God may vouchsafe to our beloved country, glorious and 
united, under as wise and capable a President, as now 
resides in the White House at the National Capital. 

“The President of our great sister Republic, France,” for 
whom three rousing cheers were given, and the song of the 
Marseillaise sung in French with great spirit, by Colonel 
Murphy. 

“In memory of our dead comrades.” 

Col. C. J. Murphy, 

of Brussels. 


27 -r- 


The Press, 

Responded to in a happy manner by Mr. Marshal of the 
N. Y. Paris Herald, followed by reminiscences of the Mexi¬ 
can War. 

I will now call on our comrade, Colonel Daniel E. 
Hungerford, who commanded the 36th Regiment New York 
Volunteers, and served with great distinction all through the 
war of the Rebellion. He was the youngest captain in his 
regiment, the 2nd New York Volunteers, in the Mexican 
War, and was the officer who first hoisted the American 
flag over the Castle of Chapultepec. Time will not permit 
me to mention the many heroic deeds of valour performed 
by Colonel Hungerford in the Mexican, as well as in the 
Civil War. Colonel Hungerford, of Rome, Italy, will now 
address you, which he did in the following words : — 

Comrades and gentlemen.— To-day, from the Atlantic to 
the Pacific, where a few of our comrades may he found they 
are gathered like ourselves, enjoying the brief moments in 
the recollections of our campaign of 1847 and 1848 in Mexico, 
a campaign fraught with so much importance to the progres¬ 
sive age of the nineteenth century. Neither the war of the 
Rebellion, (let its sad memories he for ever buried in the 
depths of oblivion, is my wish), nor any other war of ancient 
or modern times has accomplished so much to promote the 
present and future prosperity of the civilized world, as did 
the brief conflict between the Republics of Mexico and the 
United States of the North in 1846 and 1848. There is no part 
of the globe where civilization prevails, or where Christia¬ 
nity is taught and respected, but has experienced the benefi¬ 
cial effects, moral, physical, and financial, resulting from 
the magnificent and surprising campaigns of that eventful 
period, in which our countrymen will ever feel a pardonable 
pride. The impetus given to the gigantic spirit of enterprise, 
by the acquisition of nearly a million square miles of terri¬ 
tory, and the almost simultaneous discovery of vast fields of 
gold and silver, completely revolutionized all the channels 
of human industry, and quickened into life the dormant 


— 28 - 


energies and the inventive genius of the world. With colossal 
strides, our beloved country overtook the governments of the 
old world in the race for excellence, and to-day she proudly 
holds her place in the front rank, the youngest and the 
strongest, and the most hopeful of reaching the goal, and 
distancing the field, because of her illimitable resources as 
yet untouched. 

I am a old New Yorker, as you know, having no feeling of 
animosity with citizens of any other part, portion, or section 
of our common country. When the Palmetto Regiment of 
South Carolina marched side by side with the New Yorkers, 
in front of the enemy in Mexico, there was a rivalry, to be 
sure, but it was a proper spirit of emulation —esprit de corps 
each trying to out-do the other, but both having the general 
interests of their common country at heart. There was no 
North or no South , in the offensive sense, that entered into 
the general spirit of k ‘ go-ahead!That contest on a foreign 
soil showed what the American people are capable of doing, 
when united under the old flag of their fathers—whether 
they hailed from the North or the South, East or West. 

In the war of the Rebellion I commanded a New York 
regiment on the side of the Union, but I never lor a moment 
forgot that I was a soldier, or that the foe with whom we 
were contending was entitled to my respect as fellow-coun¬ 
trymen. 

Colonel Murphy was asked to give his recollections of the 
war. 

The Chairman, on introducing the Colonel said it would 
w ould not be out of place here to give a brief sketch of his 
career. He is the youngest man now living who served in the 
Mexican War. In the War of the Rebellion he was one of 
the only two commissioned officers who were awarded the 
Congressional Medal of Honor in the first general battle of 
the war, Bull Run, where 50,000 men were engaged on each 
side. The other officer was Major-General Adalbert Ames, 
of the 5th U. S. Artillery, now living at Lowell, Mass. He 
was one of the only two regimental staff officers of the same 
rank who won this distinction during the war. The other 



COLONEL CHAS. J. MURPHY 












— 29 — 


officer was first Lieutenant John W. Clark, R.Q.M., 6th 
Regiment Vermont Infantry. 

Our medal of Honor ranks with that of the cross of the 
Legion of Honor ot France, and the Victoria Cross of Eng¬ 
land, and only 1,400 were awarded a distinction greater 
than can he conferred by any potentate in Europe, because 
granted to so few ot the two million seven hundred and 
fifty thousand men who were mustered into the armies of 
the United States between 1861-65. 

Colonel Murphy, after resigning from his regiment, and 
while awaiting his commission in the regular army, which 
appointment was tendered him by President Lincoln, was 
engaged in the battle of Fair Oaks, and all through the 
seven days’ battles on the peninsular, from Gaine’s Mill to 
that of Malvern Hill, as a volunteer aid, and this without 
rank or pay. 

He erected the first field hospital for the army of the 
Potomac at Harrison’s Landing. 

Colonel Murphy was one of the first three officers who 
escaped from Richmond after Eull Run.' The history of this 
remarkable escape was very graphically described by John 
S. C. Abbot, the historian, in “Harper’s Magazine” of 
January, 1867. Colonel Murphy was one of the old forty- 
niners of California, having arrived in San Francisco on 
the ship South Carolina in June, 1849, the first sailing ship 
to arrive with passengers for the mines from New York, 
after a short passage—for those days— of 156 days. 

Of the 300 passengers on board, the only lady was Mrs. 
John White, the mother of the late U.S. Senator White now 
living in San Francisco, who wrote two years ago that she 
was not aware of any living survivors of those passengers 
except herself and Colonel Murphy, who were the two 
youngest people on the ship. 

He went from California to Shanghai, China, and estab¬ 
lished the first commercial house at the mouth of the Yang 
Kin PangRiver, opposite the foreign quarter at Shanghai, 
and loaded the first vessel that carried Chinese agricultural 
products to San Francisco. 


— 30 - 


Colonel Murphy has done more than a 113 ^ other man in 
the way of introducing the products of California in Europe, 
and secured the first gold medal for the grand wines of that 
State at the Antwerp Exposition. 

He has done yeoman service in making known the 
splendid fruit of the golden State, and it was mainly through 
his efforts while in the service of the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture that the California wines and fruit are nowon 
sale in nearly all the grocery and wine houses of Northern 
Europe. 

It was through his initiative work that the exports of our 
Indian corn was so largely increased from 24,000,000 
bushels the year he commenced the propaganda to over 
213,000,000 last year. 

If he had devoted the last fifteen of the best years of his 
life with the same enthusiasm and energy that he has given 
to this work in any legitimate business, he might have been 
a well-to-do man to-day. 

Colonel Murphy spoke as follows :— 

Comrades of the Mexican war 

I am asked to give some recollections of the Mexican War, 
but little remains for me to say after the comprehensive and 
eloquent history of that war by Judge McKay, of South 
Carolina. 

It would be presumptious in me, after what we have just 
heard from the Judge and Colonel Hungerford, to say another 
word. Larger gatherings this magnificent Hotel Continental 
has often had within its walls, for time has thinned the ranks 
of the Mexican veterans even more woefully than did Mexican 
shot and shell, but it may be doubted whether caravansery 
ever sheltered a party with more enthusiasm than is shown 
here to-night in Paris, the gay capital of France, by the few 
comrades gathered here to celebrate victories in which we 
were humble participants nearly 50 years ago. 

The thought of the days of 1847 helps me to feel young 
again, and brings vividly to my mind the gay, rollicking 
little army that marched out of Puebla on that bright August 


Ol 
«) I 


morning (alas! how many never to return), when General 
Scott left Puebla with his little army of 10,000 men to fight 
an army of 35,000 veteran troops of Mexico, in trenches, in 
mountain gorges, fortified cities, surrounded by impassable 
marshes, your base, if you had any, hundreds of miles away, 
you faced the men that had showed the quality of their mercy 
at Mier and the Alamo. You felt, that defeat meant death. 
’Tis not becoming in soldiers to boast, but who, among all of 
you that assemble on this glorious anniversary, will not 
straighten up an inch taller when he says, “ 1 was one of that 
little army." 

Where is there one whose eyes will not flash when the 
glorious 20lh of August is mentioned; when that little army 
fought five distinct battles—among them Contreras, San Anto¬ 
nio,Cherubusco, San Puebla. Then came the 8th of September, 
that proud but sorrowful day, when you lost 900 out of 4,000 
engaged. Then came Chapultepec, and the crowning event— 
our flag waving over the National Palace. The cathedraled 
City of Mexico at our feet; Popocatopeth, with its venerable 
summit of eternal snows, 18,000 feet above the sea, looks 
down upon us as it did upon Cortez three hundred years 
before, only its breezes kiss the folds of the new flag of 
America in place of the old flag of Castile. These memories 
are dear to us all, and I can think of no happier way of 
passing one day in the year than the old veterans meeting 
together and fighting their battles over again. 

Now, allow me to turn to what, occurred under General 
Taylor, who commanded the little army of occupation on the 
northern line of operations. I will only refer to the Battle 
of Buena Vista, which was a glorious victory, and the last 
General battleand crowning glory of this brave little army. It 
will be recollected that General Santa Anna was so certain of a 
victory that he wrote to General Taylor saying, “you are 
surrounded by 20,000 men, and cannot in any human 
probability avoid suffering a rout and being cut to pieces with 
your troops, but as you deserve consideration and particular 
esteem, I wish to save you from a catastrophe,’' and gave one 
hour from the arrival of his flag of truce to General Taylor 
to surrender. Old “ rough and ready" did not require all 


the hoar to respond. He wrote his memorable, but briet 
dispatch, “ I decline acceding to your request.” But think 
of the situation; an army of 20,000 veteran soldiers, 
Santa Anna at their head, General Alvarez Chief of Cavalry, 
Lombardine of Infantry, Requena of Artillery, Villarnil of 
Engineers, with Yasquez, Torrejou, Ampudia, Andrade, 
Minon, Pacheco, Garcia, Ortega, Mejia, Flores, Gusman, 
Mora, Romero, and other dashing general officers, and to 
resist all this less than 5,000 American regulars and volun¬ 
teers, and of regulars less than 500. 

On the morning of 22nd February, 1847,the Mexican cohort 
appeared on the distant hills, dense squadrons of horse, with 
glittering lances and gay pennons, forming the advance 
serried files of infantry, artillery, and cavalry, column after 
column in apparent endless massiveness followed, but it was 
Washington’s birthday, and General Taylor declined to 
surrender, and that meant hard fighting. The line of battle 
was formed by General Wool, General Taylor held Colonel 
Jefferson Davis (his son-is law) with his Mississipi Rifles, 
Lieut.-Col. May’s Dragoons, the light batteries of Captains 
Sherman and Bragg, and Captain Steers' squadron in 
reserve. General Lane moved forward with a section of 
Washington’s battery to arrest the advance of the army, but 
that enemy seemed invincible; before night the Mexicans 
had occupied the sides and scaled the summits of the Sierra 
Madre. That night our little army lay on their arms without 
fires, and long before daybreak were aroused from their 
slumbers to the tug of war; theday dawned bright,aiid beautiful 
skies unclouded, and mountain bathed in sunlight. Ampudia 
commenced the battle early, and at 8 o’clock Santa Anna 
had his main column in motion, at 11 he summoned General 
Taylor to surrender ; the fortunes of the day seemed against 
us. Lieutenant O’Brien, whose name is so indelibly written 
on Buena Vista, maintained his ground until all his can- 
noniers were killed on wounded. Eight regiments of Mexi¬ 
can infantry fell upon the 2nd Illinois, and they were forced 
to take shelter. Braggs’ and sections of Sherman’s batteries 
had been ordered to their relief. Immense hosts of Mexican 
troops poured along the base of the mountain to the rear of 


— 33 — 


the American line. Colonel Jefferson Davis hastened to meet 
them, the Mississipi Rifles went into action in double quick, 
and fired advancing, the front lines of the enemy seemed to 
melt before them : in the thickest of the fight Captain Bragg 
sent to Taylor for a supporting party, Taylor sent hack the 
answer, “ Major Bliss and I will support you/’ He galloped 
to Braggs’ support, and there gave the celebrated order, “ A 
little more grape, Captain Bragg.” The American line had 
been turned in the morning, hut before night it was recover¬ 
ed. In the success of the battle Colonel Jefferson Davis justly 
claims a conspicuous part. Our little army of less than 
5,000 men for more than 12 hours sustained this terrible fight 
against* 20,000 Mexican troops, and thus closed one of the 
most memorable battles of modern times. 

Mexico has fallen, the Stars and Stripes fly above the 
‘'Halls of the Montezumas”—a nation has been conquered. 
History records no deeds of greater daring, no triumphs of 
arms more brilliant. Empire was added to empire, 
1 ,000,000 square miles of territory were acquired—three and 
a half times the area of France—a dwelling place for 
100 ,000,000 of freemen, won by half a hundred thousand. 
Until then much of the territory of the Mississipi-Missouri 
belonged to Mexico. Now the whole valley of one million 
five hundred thousand square miles, the river, with thirteen 
hundred navigable branches, running from its source five 
hundred miles to the north, cutting through its magnificent 
mountain gateway turning to the sea, running through 
territories and states, until sweetened by the breath of the 
olive and the orange, and finally received into the warm 
embrace of the tropical gulf, 5,000 miles from the land of 
the pine to the land of the palm, long enough to reach from 
the mouth of the Hudson to the mouth of the Nile. Add the 
empire drained by the Colorado, crown these with California 
—and all isoursr,and won under the flag that now protects it.— 
Judge McKay’s reference to Colonel A. W. Donophan and 
his famous march from Missouri to Mexico with Colonel 
Sterling Price reminds me of the ever-to-be-remembered 
passage from Brazos Santiago to New Orleans on the old 
Mississipi River a tow-boat of six hundred tons, the “ Mary 


- 34 — 


Kingsland,” on which I was one of the invalid passen¬ 
gers. We had crowded on that small vessel nearly 900 men 
of Colonel Donophan’s regiment, over 800 men of the 2nd 
Indiana (Colonel Bowles) and over 100 sick men of other 
commands. Many of these men were down with yellow 
fever, of whom ten died during the five days’ passage, and 
were buried at sea. You may talk of the Black Hole of 
Calcutta, but I do not think it was any worse than the 
lower hold of that steamer, where we were obliged to lie 
packed together like sardines on square blocks of iron used 
as ballast, where the foul, stenchful bilge water came 
oozing up between these iron blocks. Then to add to our 
discomforts we had nothing to eat but the hardest kind of 
ship-buiscuit that was impossible to masticate, and rotten, 
green measly pork and Rio coffee served out in the green bean 
The stuff was so vile that we were often obliged to vomit 
after each meal, as we could not retain the putrid meat on 
our stomachs. 

The Government, no doubt, paid for sound pork, but in 
those days the Government contractors were principally 
gentlemen from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, located at 
Cincinnatti, who were not over scrupulous as to the kind of 
meat they supplied providing they got the money. 

I will never forget the horrors of that five days passage, 
and to add to our trouble, we experienced one of those ter¬ 
rible storms they called “ northers ” in that latitude, during 
which we very nearly foundered. You can imagine a small 
paddle-wheel river-steamboat of 600 tons loaded down with 
nearly 2,000 men, 16 pieces of brass cannon, and thousands 
of Mexican lances, besides the rotten pork, Rio coffee, and 
the hardest kind of tack. The cannon and lances were cap¬ 
tured by Colonel Donophan’s regiment at the Battles of 
Sacramento and San Jacinto, and comprised all the artillery 
the Mexicans had at these two fights. 

I am confident if this war occurred at the present day, 
we would have had a harder task to perform, as Mexico is 
possessed now of a well-disciplined army, splendidly offi¬ 
cered and of very different materials, and trust we will 
always live in peace and friendly intercourse with our 


- 35 — 


Mexican brothers, as should become all near-by neighbours 
and friends. 

Sherman and others, returning from the shores of our 
Western sea, joined in another march, from Atlanta, to our 
Eastern sea, and but for these, who can tell what would 
have been the result of our experiment of self-government, 
or where the boundary lines of the States of freedom would 
be drawn to-day. Milton says : 

“ Peace hath her victories 

No less renowned than war,” 

and the men of peace who remained fought battles in the 
material world, with equal dangers requiring equal courage, 
and with results as supremely grand. The difficulties, 
dangers, and cost incident to the construction of the Central 
Pacific Railway were such as scarcely to be comprehended 
by men of to-day; its obstacles were simply appalling. The 
art of railway construction at that time was so far removed 
from its present advanced state that engineers looked upon 
the project with amazement, and capitalists with derision, its 
conception was so bold, so grand, so stupendous, so startling, 
as to fill the incredulous even with admiration. Bonaparte’s 
crossing of the Alps with his army and artillery is dwarfed 
into tameness when compared with the achievement which 
made this the highway of nations and the “rapid transit” of 
the world’s commerce. In the autumn of 1849, the very 
month that California was organised as a territory, a Pacific 
Railroad Convention was held. On May 1, 1852, the Legis¬ 
lature of California passed “an Act granting the right of way 
to the United States for a railroad to connect the navigable 
waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans for the purposes of 
national safety in the event of war, and to promote the 
highest interests of the Republic, pronounced one of the 
greatest necessities of the age.” A Senator,upon the floor of Con¬ 
gress, said:“I look upon the building of the railroad from the 
waters of the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean,at the time parti¬ 
cularly in which it was built during the war, as perhaps the 
greatestachievementofthe human race on earth.”Let us honour 


the builders with a simple moment’s consideration. Engineer 
Colonel 0. M. Poe, in his report to General Sherman, said : 
“An army of workmen were employed, 25,000 men and 
6,000 teams’ and the route presented a busy scene. The woods 
rang with the strokes of the axe, and the quarries with the 
click of steel; the streams were bordered with lumbermen's 
camps and choked with floating logs, and materials, supplies, 
and equipment for the Central Pacific were scattered from 
New York via Cape Horn and San Francisco to the end of 
the track advancing eastward.” The base of supplies of the 
Central Pacific from the Eastern Rolling Mills, by the way 
of Cape Horn to the track layers, was equal to the circuit of 
the globe on the parallel of the road. This distance was so 
great as to keep materials to the value of millions of dollars, 
and sufficient for nearly a year’s construction, constantly in 
transit. In cutting the Sierras, miles of snow and rock were 
tunneled; snow slides and avalanches destroyed many lives 
and large amounts of property. To hasten the work of 
piercing the Sierras, three locomotives, forty cars, rails, and 
track material for forty miles of railroad were hauled on 
sleds by oxen and horses over the summits of that Alpine 
range and down into the canon of the Truckee River. This 
over a pass in which the annual average snowfall was forty 
feet and the depth of hard settled snow in midwinter was 
eighteen feet on the level. Who at this distance appreciates 
the stupendous work of these Titans ? From the Truckee to 
the Bear River in Utah, the inhabitants did not average one 
to each ten miles. With the exception of a few cords of 
stunted pine and juniper, all the fuel had to be hauled from 
the Sierras. For over five hundred miles there was not a 
tree that would make a board or tie. Fortunes were expended 
in boring for water and in laying pipes, in some instances 
over eight miles in length, to convey water to the line of the 
road. 

Upon this desert stretch, as far as from Boston to Buffalo, 
there was nothing that entered into the superstructure of a 
railroad, not even good stone, and water for men and animals 
was hauled at times for forty miles. The cost of supplies 
was fabulous; oats and barley for the animals cost from $200 


— 37 — 


to $280 per ton, and hay $120. But, as with Grant at Vicks¬ 
burg and at the Wilderness, the work went on, the road was 
completed, and it was California Pioneers who did it, and 
who made the road they built their monument, and “success” 
their epitaph. Senator Benton said his dream was “to see a 
train of cars thundering down the Eastern slope of the Rocky 
Mountains, bearing in transit to Europe the teas, silks, and 
spices of the Orient.” His dream is practically realised, as 
there are seven trans-continental lines bearing this commerce 
to the Atlantic. 

The Pioneer has left other material legacies to the nation. 
The great American Deserts you knew will soon be blotted 
from our maps. By the science of civilization large tracts of 
these have been made to “blossom like the rose,” rivers that 
ran to waste now work the mine, turn the wheel, and then 
with the artesian flow irrigate the desert wastes, until fruitful 
gardens have grown like sweet dreams along the trail where 
comrades of ours died of damning thirst. 

We all love the sweet flowery land we knew as territory, 
then as the new, and now the dear old State. We remember 
with becoming pride our first votes. California came into 
the Union a Free State. How controlling this action was 
none knew, nor when viewed in the light of the history of 
the Rebellion can it be measured. California became a gem 
in the Federal coronet. The pen of Bishop Berkley must 
have pointed toward it when he wrote his epigrammatic 
expression, “Ho! westward Empire takes its way.” It is a 
sunny land, and merits the sobriquet, “Italy of America,” 
with its clear skies, charms of climate, wonderful soils, 
wealth of mines, fabulous products and enchantments of 
scenery, crowned with the Yosemite Falls, the highest in the 
world, descending in three leaps 2,500 feet, or one-half a 
mile, from the glaciers and eternal snows of the Sierras to 
the valley below, a very Eden of sublimity and loveliness, 
perhaps the most wondrously grand and beautiful spot on 
the earth. To stand for an hour upon a summit crest of the 
Sierras, the grandest of America’s Alpine ranges; to live 
a day amid their icy homes; to descend their western slopes; 
to trace their long summit lines of snow-clad peaks that link 


Oregon to Aztec Mexico; to walk where a single step takes 
you from the glacier ice to Spring's resurrection, where the 
violets greet you with sweetest smiles through dewy tears of 
joy, born on the spot where the snows of yesterday were 
melted by the morning’s sun; the great pines and sequoia 
gigantea, those wonders of the world’s forests, in whose 
branches the birds chorused their matin songs centuries 
before the Christian era, towering below you; the silvery 
lines of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers mirroring 
hundreds of miles of the great central valley, reaching far 
North and South from the Bay of San Francisco; the Coast 
Range alone curtaining the Pacific Sea, with stern old Mount 
Diablo standing as the sole sentinel guarding the Golden 
gate— these are alone worth crossing a continent to see—and 
recall the words of Tom Moore, who, after visiting the 
mountains of New England, the rivers and lakes of New 
York, the St Lawrence and grand old Niagara, wrote to Lady 
Charlotte Rowdon, saying : 

“ Oh, Lady, these are miracles which man, 

Caged in the bonds of Europe’s pigmy plan, 

Can scarce dream of, and which the eye must see 
To know how beautiful this world can be.” 

Pity he could not have seen and sung of our lands of the 
Yellowstone, the Columbia, and the Yosemite,—what words 
would these have inspired his poet pen to write. 

Among the gentlemen who have honored us with their 
presence here to-night as one of our guests I notice my friend 
the Honorable Felix Campbell, Member of Congress from 
Brooklyn, and who is now the Dean of the delegation 
to the Congress of the United States from the great State 
of New York, and who has been honored with many many 
re-elections to that body; his presence here to-night is 
particularly welcome to us old soldiers of the Mexican War, 
for we all remember the active part he took in helping to 
secure the passage of our pension bill a few years ago. 

I must also not forget to mention the name of my old 
friend and fellow forty-niner of California, James Phelan,Esq., 


— 39 - 


of San Francisco to whose generosity we are mainly in¬ 
debted for this splendid entertainment to-night, whose 
patriotic spirit and warm-hearted nature always come to 
the front on such occasions. May his shadow never grow 
less, and that he may never die till I kill him. 

As allusion has been made to the war of the rebellion, in 
which comrade McKay took a most prominent part on the 
side of the South, and Colonel Hungerford and myself serv¬ 
ing in the Union Army. Although South Carolina and New 
York troops fought side by side in the same brigade under 
the gallant General Shields in Mexico, we found ourselves, 
unfortunately, arrayed against each other in later years in 
our own country, and no man who is a man will from 
political or personal motives keep alive the passions of the 
war, or by fanning the embers of sectional hat red for political 
or partisan effect, subject our people to the charge of vindic¬ 
tive malignity. I trust we have long since forgotten the 
bitter memories of our Civil War, and that we only remem¬ 
ber the gallant acts and deeds of both armies. 

I have hoped for years back that the time would come, and 
it is happily now at hand, when the brave soldiers of the 
society of the army of Northern Virginia, who fought under 
the gallant Lee, will meet side by side at the annual reunions 
with the soldiers of our society of the army of the Potomac, 
who fought under McClellan Grant, Meade, and Sheridan, 
and at other festive meetings of our various army gatherings 
and organizations of old soldiers, where I have never heard 
a word said against, but the highest praise accorded to our 
gallant but misguided southern brothers for their bravery 
and daring on the battlefield. 

Colonel Murphy was called upon to respond to the last 
sentiment,—in memory of our dead comrades,—which he 
did, as follows : 

I am called on to say a word to the memory of our dear 
departed comrades. Would that I had command of language 
to do justice to our dead heroes. Father Time has fearfully 
thinned our ranks, and few of us can point to the comrade 
who was his file leader and marched shoulder to shoulder 


— 40 — 


with us nearly 50 years ago, and the death roll since the Mexi¬ 
can War has been frightful among the distinguished men of 
that army who have been called to their final account. I men¬ 
tion a few, Scott, Taylor, Pillow, Quitman, Twiggs, Duncan, 
Pierce, Kearney, Hancock, Shields. The last named general, 
and the last surviving general of that war, was a welcome 
guest at my house a few years ago when stricken with a fatal 
sickness when far away from his Western home and kindred. 

I well remember the gallant Lieutenant Ralph Bell of the 
South Carolina Regiment, mentioned by comrade McKay, 
and who, while wounded, led the forlorn hope at Chapultepec. 
He accompanied me to California in 1849, and his eyes I 
closed in death at Sacramento City the following year, and 
whose placid countenance looks down upon me here to-night. 
These are sad memories, and the tongue can but feebly express 
the feelings of the heart at this time; our own bent forms and 
fast becoming hoary locks admonish us that it will not be 
long before we too are called to tread the same path, and no 
matter what our former condition in life, there is no distinc¬ 
tion then. The dead, how beautiful is the memory of the 
dead, what a holy thing it is in the human heart, what a 
chastening influence it has upon human life, how it subdues 
all the harshness that grows up within us in the daily inter¬ 
course with the world, how it melts our hardness and softens 
our pride, kindles our deepest love, and waking our brightest 
aspirations in the camp and by the wajnside, in solitude or 
among our comrades, think sadly and speak lovingly of the 
dead. 

It occcurred to the compiler of this pamphlet that it would 
not be out of place to mention the name of Colonel Murphy’s 
son, Ignatius, a well-known journalist and editorial writer, 
who wrote the life of Colonel Hungerford (a book of nearly 
400 pages). This gallant soldier recently died in Rome, 
Italy, at the home of his daughter, the Countess Telfener. at 
the Villa Ada, attaining the ripe age of seventy-five years. He 
passed peacefully away, surrounded by his aflectionaie wife, 
his daughter, the Countess, and his numerous grandchildren. 

Ignatius Ingoldsby Murphy deserves more than a mere 
honourable mention in connection with the corn propaganda 



IGNATIUS INGOLDSBY MURPHY 

CADET ISt CLASS, UNITED STATES 
• NAVAL ACADEMY, ANNAPOLIS, MD., U.S.A. 












































— 41 — 


When his father commenced his missionary labors, in 1887, 
he was flooded with correspondence from all parts of Europe. 
This son, who was a third year naval cadet at Annapolis, 
resigned, and came over to Europe to assist his father, for 
which his knowledge of European languages eminently 
qualified him. 

When his father was ordered from Berlin to Russia, 
by General Rusk, at Ihe request of the Grand Duke Sergius, 
the uncle of the present Emperor, the Secretary of Agricul¬ 
ture appointed him as special agent and secretary to take 
his father’s place in Germany, and much of the success of 
this propaganda is fairly attributable to his valuable assis¬ 
tance, together with that of Colonel Murphy’s wife, who 
recently died in Brussels. This extraordinary and gifted 
woman gave the last fifteen of the best years of her life to 
this work ; in fact her whole life, no less than her pen has 
been devoted to the welfare of others. The two daughters 
also worked together with the same energy and enthusiasm 
as their father, for no one man could have accomplished such 
phenomenal work in so short a time. 

The exports of our American corn (maize) was only 
24,000,000 bushels of 56 lbs. each in 1888, less than four 
per cent, of our production. The year after the commence¬ 
ment of this propaganda, which Colonel Murphy under¬ 
took on his own initiative and sole expense, unaided by any¬ 
one, the exports went up rapidly, and in 1901 were over 213 
million bushels, and every acre of land on the corn belt has 
doubled in value in the last fifteen years. This result proves 
the value of the work done by this propaganda in showing 
the people of Europe the value of maize as human food, 
which was formerly only considered as fit food for animals. 
This family deserves a place on the roll of grateful 
remembrance. 







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